Maggie.

Our sweet neighbor Jim came to pick up Boss and Beauty as we finally found another milking cow and bought her. We had a bit of fun getting Boss in the trailer. She turned out to be a bit of a pain as she didn't chase at all. The calf was a wild little thing that scaled a fence as tall as my nose!! Because of this we could not separate them long enough (without a big battle that we weren't sure would be worth it.. putting a halter on the calf.) to get any real amount of milk. So yesterday Jim took them both to auction to be sold today and took Papa out to a local dairy to pick up our new cow. She's a Holstein. Purebred. Papered!! Her birthday is the 21st of August so she was 2 then. She's super tall. And will make Bindy look the half jersey she is. She had never been off their dairy and Papa figures never off concrete. She seems very unsure of herself on dirt. She also moves slow and easy and will GLARE at the chickens but not chase them. When they pulled up she was almost shaking from fright! She seems to be a really calm cow all in all as she was fine and eating in less then 30 minutes. She is like a big calf. Really curious about everything. She loves to see us in the window and has licked the window where she can reach it. Papa got up early to milk her this morning. He was very careful to find out what she's been eating when and then got some of the silage they'd been feeding her to transition her over. She is really mild mannered and sweet. Last night after we'd gone inside she'd come to the window as close as she could get and try and look in. She was very happy when I opened the window and talked to her. That's when I named her Maggie. Her papered name starts with a D and doesn't suit her. This morning the biggest problem he had milking was getting her head in the stanchion. He had to tie a rope to the stanchion door and pull it shut from a ways away because every time he got close she's leave. She had her calf very close to her birthday so has been milking for less then a month. We are hoping she will adjust well to hand milking and this morning was a great sign. She would only pick her feet up, not to kick, but just up slow and then Papa would push it back down. It was interesting watching him milk her as she is so tall. He sat on a 3 gallon bucket to milk instead of a small 6 inch stool. His knees were at right angles and his back straight. He's hands slightly above his shoulders. And the bucket way down there. With Bindy we have to dig a hole to fit the 3 gallon bucket under her. With Maggie we are thinking about putting it on a stool!! The outside of the bucket was a real mess of splattered milk as it's hard to aim when it's so high up. She gave him a full 2 gallons this morning. Which is great as that is what they were getting. I expect the amount will go up. She is very thin which is going to be a challenge. We are hoping that our non grain mix will fatten her up a bit like it did Boss. Boss gained a fair amount of weight her in the short time she was here. What with no competition, all the grass she could eat, and a bucket of sweet stuff every couple days. When she left we could no longer see every bone on her back or shoulders. We are both hoping that Maggie will do the same. Boss was farther into her lactation so it might take longer. I'm watching Maggie out of the window here as I type and she has finally found the bucket of sweets that Papa left for her. She wouldn't really try it this morning but now she really likes it. That is a great 1st step. She'll have a lot of stuff to get used to. Eating grass, chickens, hand milking, children, being out of doors, electric fence, being the only cow on the place til Bindy comes back. She stands in our milking area (our secure pen) and stares out into the yard. She can't keep the awe out of her big black eyes. This weekend is Papa's 3 days off in a row so we are going to slowly let her adjust to us and farm life. I'm planning on being on hand with the camera as she gets to go out on pasture for what is probably the 1st time in her life. I know that lots of dairy farmers now raise their heifers up on grass but Papa took a good look at the farm and just didn't see this guy as one of them. There did not appear to be any outside pens. I find myself feeling like we rescued Maggie from a life of indoors-ment and opened the world up for her. And all because she'd ONLY give 4 gallons a day!! Ah well... we got what we wanted, needed and so did they! And I'm very sure that, we'll give her a bit, she'll fit right in and enjoy farm life. Here she is on grass for the 1st time that we know of. The boys had been feeding her grass the day before and so she knew it was good!!

Here is Maggie trying to crawl in the window. This is NOTHING compared to what she had been doing. That 2x4 you see is holding her back!! Her whole neck was inside at one point. She loves to look in.

Girls Night.

About a month or 6 weeks ago I went on a girls night that was really special. 6 of us went to The City to go out for supper, then bowling, then out for dessert and then home in Di's van. We had a great time. What was really great about it is that these 6 girls have never done this together before and many of us hadn't seen each other in years. While others see each other monthly or more. We all have children with the exception of one who has the care of a little boy semi permanently. Between the 6 of us there are 13 children... all under the age of 5. J is the oldest. The youngest is only 6 or 7 months old. The really neat thing about us getting together is that 5 of us went to grade school together for several years. And all of us went to high school together but we all went our separate ways and now met up again, and 4 are living in the same town after living away. One is from Australia and visits with her 2 kids and another lives in the City with her husband and 2 kids. We've all been married for different lengths of time. (I'm not positive but we may all have been married different years.) Anyway we had a great time and really got to know each other again. Next time we get together we want to get the kids all together too. Should be a blast!

Pictures of Chicken Butchering.

Later is better then never I guess. I forgot I had these and just found them a bit ago. We had the perfect day for chicken butchering. Not too hot and just windy enough to keep most of the fly's away. There was 3 couples, my mom who just showed up and helped, and Momma T who brought her 3 little T's. Daddy T joined us later just in time for a store run and supper. So we had 7 adults and 7 children and we did roughly 200 birds in 6 hours. 2 of our cleaners only stayed until lunch then had to go. 1 came back later to help finish up. Not too shabby!! We used a hooded plucker and the maul gropen for a scalder. Papa did all the eviscerating and us 5 cleaners didn't even fall too far behind. My Mom and B, the above B's wife :), had never chicken butchered or hadn't in YEARS so we had a small training drill too. Everyone did really well and soon I stopped re-checking birds which made it go even faster. 8 hours after we started all the birds that needed cutting up were cut up and everything else except 10 were gone or in the freezer!!! Slick!! We cut them up for ease of use. With 4 people cutting up and 1 bagging this in incredibly fast. We cut up 65 birds in about 40 minutes... with delays and switch ups. That last 10 went the next day as planned. Momma T and I cleaning birds at the end of the day. Mrs. B took the pictures. Papa is in the back cleaning out the scalder. That black thing on the right is the plucker.

Mr. B, Glen and the 7 children enjoying a cool treat at the end of the day. Yes they all washed first. :)

J caught this chicken all by himself.

B and Uncle R making the switch from block to scalder. That's half of Papa you see.

J and Glen catching chickens with Girl T looking on. She caught a few too.

Here is our friend Mr. B carrying a chicken to the block. Mr. B learned a valuable lesson this day. He went to catch the 1st chicken of the day and jumped in there and scared the flock so bad that they just ran right over the fence and we spent the next 3o minutes trying to get them in!! And he missed the chicken!! We all laughed at him he was so excited to get this done. He laughed too. This is right after that mess. Yes we chop heads instead of hang in cones. Our cones got lost in the shuffle of too many moves and we find this works just as well.

Beans

Well for the 1st time EVER I used my pressure canner!! And actually I've used it quite a bit since then. We planted 2 rows of beans late this spring and with the help of some white row covers we got 18 jars of green beans put up. It would have been more but we ate a bit and I was saving some in the fridge in jars ready to be canned when I had enough and they 'went' on me. I'm not sure why?? Anyway now I know not to store them, just can them. The 1st time I used it I started it when the kids were up but watching a movie in the living room and finished it at nap time. When we weren't blown to bits and nothing else bad happened I started using it whenever and whenever I needed too. But the kids still stay in the living room. That's a constant when we are cooking anyway so they know the drill!! I also pressure canned Pork'N Beans and I'm planning on doing kidneys as soon as we are done the salsa and perishables this fall. I already have the dry beans and we never use them because I forget to soak them before I need them or don't have time to cook them so I thought why not? My beans are still producing but mostly we are eating the little bit they are giving. If we get another bigger batch I'll probably do some more quart jars full. At 1 quart of beans = roughly 2 meals for the 6 of us we've got enough for about 36 meals. Not so shabby for 2 little 25 foot rows!!

Day 6

The Train!!
A black bear.

The 7 Sister Mountains.

The Nechako River? Either that or the Fraser??

Some mountains on the way home.

Papa asleep in the window seat. What you see out the window is what we saw a lot!!

The Pictograph's

Our hotel room. Above is the entryway, mini bar and coffee pot. Below is the bathroom with it's TV mirror!! In the top of the mirror was a TV with a remote and everything.

Day 6 had us leaving our plush hotel room early and heading downstairs to our waiting taxi. We arrived at the train station right on time and entered the mostly empty train lobby to get everything ready for the train ride. Within minutes the place was crawling with people. And when we finally did head onto the train we found out why. The train car that we were on, economy, was pretty much FULL. There were only 2 or 3 seats left on the whole car. Groups of people got to go on first so that they could make sure and sit together. Some people we know happened to be on the train with us and we chatted to them for a bit. They were hoping to get dropped off on their own train crossing and later managed this very well. She has MS and has a scooter which was most of the problem. The scooter drove right out on to a pickup bed and there was no problems at all. This was really nice for them because they'd had to start out over a hours drive from home when they went to Rupert and this made their train ride several HOURS longer!! (There is, we're told, several hours of wait time between the 2 towns.)

The train had 2 stewards or stewardess that proved to be entertaining and enlightening. They made regular announcements over the intercom about the towns and areas we went through. They also alerted us to a bear on the side of the tracks and some pictograph's on a rock wall during the trip. They also brought a cart of 'goodies' down the aisle every few hours. Later in the day Papa bought a micro brew off them to enjoy while we rumbled along! We headed out of Rupert and found almost instantly that it's not at all like driving in a car except that your moving. LOL. The highways up North are cleared for fire lines and also for animal sightings. It's nice to be able to see the moose on the side of the road instead of just hitting them when the come blasting thru the bush onto the road. With the train they don't clear the sides unless there is another track or a natural open spot. Or a town. So you see a lot of green trees and branches right beside your window. If the trees are thin you can see mountains, streams, towns, fields through the trees. I found that I could not look out much at all as it hurt my eyes. Papa felt the same way and so must have a lot of others because a lot of them, including Papa, fell asleep. I dosed once or twice but mostly stuck my nose in a book and looked up every once and a while when people started moving. Others must have been looking out because every time something cool would come up they'd get up and cross the aisle and take pictures so I missed very little of the 'good stuff' and still finished my book. By the time we reached Smithers the car was only 1/3 of the way full and it made for a nicer friendlier atmosphere. We had a 40 minute wait at Smithers so Papa and I dashed down town and got an ice cream and dashed back to the train. Papa wanted to saunter but I was really worried we'd miss the train and be stuck in Smithers so we dashed!! It was nice to get out of the train and get some fresh air. After that we started looking for landmarks we knew and tried to figure out where the train went compared to the highway. We totally enjoyed going around Fraser Lake (the Lake not the town.) which I had no idea that it was that BIG!! We saw our favorite swimming beach and the backs of several Log Mills. We saw some beautiful streams, mountains and rivers. Then we were pulling into McCall crossing and our friends were getting off and heading home. Soon it was time to get our bags together and get ready to get off. As we pulled into Town we saw our bags heading down past us to disembark and we looked ahead to see if we could see Grandma and Grandpa and our children. We could not! But wait there they are!! Grandpa in a white shirt holding J and L's hands. Grandma in front of the stroller where R was sitting with wide eyes and holding E's little hand. All the kids dressed up and waiting. E in her little orange dress. J and L each holding flowers, freshly picked. And all of them with a aura of wonder on their faces. Then smiles as Papa and I walked off the train and hugs all around as the people on the train waved and some took pictures and the kids waved back and the chug chug we had heard all day started up again and then the train was gone. And we stood and chatted and laughed and smiled. Happy to be home. R looked at both of us with a funny sort of shyness on her face. She ducked her head but smiled at me when I picked her up and kissed her. Then she grinned back. It did take her a while to really beam at us like she normally does. But by the time we got home that night she was back to herself. J and L and E had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and several times that night we heard, "Grandma, oh I mean Mom." or "Grandpa oh no Papa!!" We heard all about the movies they'd watched, the people they'd seen, and the things they had done all week. Then we broke open the surprises and shared them all around. Finally we headed home both Papa and I eager to check on the place and the kids happy to be going back to our family and our life. The pigs were fine and IN which is important. The cow was well fed and also IN. And my green house and garden had grown well. We fixed and ate a simple supper and tucked everyone into their own beds and I slept soundly for the 1st time all week.

Blessing Box

My sister Ann blessed me the other day with a birthday gift. About 3 months late but I SO did not mind!! She knows that Papa wants 12 children and that I want at least 8 so she made it big enough to fit. It's a little box about 5 inches by 8 inches and inside it has a card for each of the kids. Each card has a baby picture of the child, their birth date, weight at birth, length at birth, time of birth and their full name!! And each one has a half circle cut out of the side (each one in a different spot ) so you can get them out easily!! She told me too that she got lots of stuff to make more cards and put them in a box labeled with my name so that she can make a card for each of our new babies. What a great gift. A great way to show her support of our choices. Thank You Ang!! The verse on the top underside of the lid.

The top.
The open box with J's card.

Chocolate Covered....

Child!! She loved the brownies I made with Ch. chip icing.

Day 5.

Day 5 was the only day on our whole trip that we were able to sleep in, at the B&B's breakfast is served early and we had a plane and a ferry to catch early in the morning the other 2 days, so we did. We headed down to breakfast at 9:30 and found some of our fellow ferry people also enjoying the restaurant. Oh I almost forgot. Most of the people we traveled with spoke English as a 2nd or 3rd or possibly even 4th language. It was very hard to talk to anyone. Several groups or couples had only 1 person who spoke English at all. And then not always very well!! There was a lot of languages being spoken all over the place. Papa and I didn't even know what a lot of them were. We heard Spanish, french, several different Chinese/Japanese, and maybe some Italian!! Some sounded the same to us but it didn't seem like the 2 groups could communicate to each other at all!! We were quite confused many times trying to figure out what language they were speaking. There was quite a lot of hand jesters being used when ordering and speaking. The hotel restaurant (quite well known all around for good food.) was over the water and we watched boats come in and go out as we ate. We also saw some sea planes take off. After a breakfast of fried potatoes, ham, bacon, toast and eggs we grabbed the camera and went for a walk down in Cow bay. I guess the story goes that the first dairy farmer in the area had to make his cows swim across to the island that is now Prince Rupert. They landed in what is now called Cow bay. Cow bay is a couple of streets of small shops and cafes and stuff like that. A lot of it is painted in the black and white of a dairy cow. While wandering though this area we picked up some gifts for Grandma and the little people we'd left with her. At one point we looked up and saw an eagle sitting and looking at us from the top of a 2 story building. Papa snatched his picture!! We looked into going on a whale watching tour but decided not too when we found out it would only be humpbacks. We really wanted to see Killer whales (also called orca's) but the season was over for them so far north. If we'd known that in Victoria I'm sure we would have done a tour there. Oh well something for next time. We walked to a nearby grocery store and bought a couple of bags of easily eatable food for the train ride the next day. We walked back to the hotel several hours after we'd left it with sore feet and arms and Papa's back hurt him so badly he called around and found a masseuse that was open and set up an appointment. While he was gone, it was a bit away and he had to walk there and back and had an hour long session, I dozed and watched some daytime TV which we never do because we don't have a TV. It was called The Last 10 Pounds and was a neat sort of way to think about losing weight. Though I have more then 10 lbs to lose. Papa got back limber and ready to go out again so we headed back to Cow bay to the little sushi place we'd seen there. When we got there we found out it was closed for the afternoon so we bought a few more little things and headed back to the hotel. We were almost back when we noticed a lot of people looking out into the harbour. So we looked too. A cruise ship was docking! A HUGE ship that held about 2,700 passengers, we found out later. It took them over 45 minutes to unload just the passengers that were getting off!! And they had 2 walkways to shore. Papa snapped more pictures. By this time I was getting woozy on my feet. It was after 3:30pm and we'd not eaten since 9:30!! The movie store was right by the motel and we did a quick peek and came out with 2. THEN we headed back to the hotel and some long awaited food!! We ate again looking out over the water. I had a fisherman's chowder and a penne pasta dish and Papa had oysters and some other kind of seafood. He ate seafood the whole time!! I did for most of it too. YUMM. After I started to feel alive again we had a nice romantic dinner! The rest of the night was spent relaxing in our room watching movies and getting ready for the next day and another early morning. A tug boat pulling a small crane.

A sea plane.

Humpback whale Statue at the waterfront.
The view from the room.

A neat long canoe that we later saw filled with kids and paddling across the bay.

The Eagle.

The hot tubs in the front of the cruise ship.

The Cruise ship.

Day 4

5am came all too soon and by 10 to 5 we were packed up and waiting out side for the school bus shuttle. We found out after we got on the shuttle that there was a $7 fee per person and we had to quickly find some cash. It was a short ride though and soon we were getting our passage and stateroom finalized on the ferry. We walked on the ferry and went right to the our state room. Both of us wanting to go take a good look around but not wanting to haul our 4 bags with us. So we dropped them off in the stateroom. (sorry it's the only room we stayed in that we didn't get a picture of. It was pretty much 2 twin beds with a bedside table in the middle. Over the table was a window where you could look out over the water and everyone else could look in!! And at the foot of the left bed there was small desk and then a closet and on the other side there was a bathroom with a shower. On the wall of the bathroom there was a TV hanging so you could see it from the twin bed. ) We joined most of the other walk-ons on the decks over looking the water and later the car passengers as well. Papa got a great picture of a eagle that was calling for it's mate. We watched the ferry pull out of the harbor and took a picture of our hotel and then the fog rolled in and I got a bit seasick and had to head back to the room to lay down so we headed back to the state room to catch up on some sleep!! We woke up at about 9 and went for a walk a bout, taking some pictures and exploring the ferry a bit more. It had 7 levels or stories. The top one was only for crew and the bottom 3 were for cars or storage or engines. But between decks 4, 5 and 6 there was 2 restaurants, a gift shop, a movie theater, several seating areas with pretty nice chairs facing out, a paid seating area and a ton of staterooms. There was also a very obvious amount of life jacket storage containers and life rafts and rescue boats. This being because this boat is only a 2 year old boat as the last ferry sank in the last two years. At supper later we overheard a waitress telling the table beside us where it sank and what had happened to it. It was a bit eye opening as both of us had forgotten that the ferry had sank. But we were safe and all was well. We had breakfast in the cafeteria type restaurant and sat by the window and looked out while we ate. After breakfast we headed back up to the back of the ferry and a deck there. Right when we got there there was a bit of excitement and Papa and I saw our 1st whale!! It was a humpback whale and it blew air out thru the water out in a large stream. VERY COOL!!! Over the day we saw about 15 humpbacks and Papa got several pictures of them. He even got ones tail as it hung out of the water!! We watched whales all thru lunch sitting and eating by the window. We sat in the cafeteria for a good chunk of the afternoon and watched and took picture of the whales and the scenery. It was beautiful. By mid afternoon we were out in open-ish water again and my poor tummy decided it needed another lay down. (I was mostly fine the whole trip because we were in between islands and land. Only the open ocean made me sick.) So we headed back to the state room and another nap. We probably missed some whales but at that point I no longer cared!! When we woke up Papa had a quick shower (He thought the shower was really cool as we were not expecting to have one and had to try it.) and we went for a walk around the ferry before supper. Now just a note here. There were 3 stories we walked every time we went anywhere and at one point while looking for Papa I searched them all 3 times. There is a elevator in the ferry but we did not use it ONCE!!! We did a LOT of stairs!! And what with all the walking we did in Victoria and Port Hardy we had a regular work out every time we did anything. We also walked all of Rupert but I'll get to that. We had supper in the 'posh' restaurant and wow was it good. It was all you could eat buffet style and very good. Papa had a beer with his meal but it was only so so. We saw several more whales while we ate. After we were done eating Papa had to run for something and I asked the waitress if he could get a tour of the engine rooms. She told me how to arrange it and so I did. About an hour after that, and another walk around all decks and more pictures, we were just getting ready to head for the movie (there was very little to see as it was just about dark) when the phone rang. They were ready for the tour. So Papa grabbed the camera and took himself and his grin to see the engine rooms. I grabbed my book and headed to the movie. I was a bit early so I read while I waited. I laugh even thinking about the movie. Not our normal type of movie and very corny. Sorry I don't remember what it was. But BOY was it FUNNY!! I laughed and laughed. Papa came in after his tour and sat for a minute then got up and left!! But I watched the whole thing and still chuckle when I think of it. Papa went for another walk a bout but didn't take any pictures because it was dark. When the movie was done we hurried back to our stateroom and I packed up so that we'd be ready when we got to Prince Rupert. Then we headed to the top deck to watch the ferry go in. We saw the new container dock there close to Rupert and watched them loading and unloading a HUGE ship with 3 different winches putting these big truck length containers on or off the ferry. 2 Unloading and 1 loading. And then suddenly we were in Rupert and the captain parked that big boat just like we parallel park cars in to the dock using his side jets and we had landed in Rupert. 15 hours on that ferry in all and 15 whales. After walking off the ferry we had to wait for a train to go by (the same place we were to load up on the train the next day but we didn't know it.) and we jumped in a cab for the 5 minute drive to our hotel and a good nights sleep!! There were able 75 walk ons on the ferry. Only a few of these seemed to be locals most were tourists. The hotel in Port Hardy.

Sunrise.


Fog coming in.



The tail of a humpback whale!! One of the 15 we saw.

A pretty place.

The prettiest lighthouse we saw.

A sepia picture Papa took.

A fishing boat. There is a man on the boat taking a picture of the ferry!!

Snow covered mountains on the mainland. We flew over these mountains on the way down.

A cirque. We saw a few.

A pretty picture of a boat around sunset.

The container dock at Rupert. A better picture.

What they called the most picturesque lighthouse on the trip.

Dinner on the Ferry.

The Engine Room. The big silver things are the engines. The are 9 headed.

The container dock at Rupert. Too blurry I know but I can't seem to get it off. Sorry.

Bread.

I've started to put oatmeal in my bread recipe and we love the extra goodness that it brings to the loaf!! The recipe before was

2 cups warm water
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp yeast
4 tbsp lard or butter
2 tsp salt.

Then let it proof and add

3 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups white flour.

Then I let my bread maker mix it up and rise it before taking it out to form into balls or bread and rise again before baking it at 350 F for 15 minutes for buns or 30 minutes for bread. The original recipe had a egg in it but I found the bread molded really fast and it was a lot softer faster. Mushy in about 24 hours.

Now I'm doing the same thing at first then adding 1 cup of oatmeal to the water ( softens it up so it blends better) and only adding 1 cup of white flour and 4 of whole wheat. We love it and it's much more filling and I'm not having to make bread or buns quite so often. The bread is WAY better this way as it makes a more compact loaf and doesn't fall apart so easily.

Swiming with Kids.

We took the kids swimming in the "City" the other day and we had a blast. The best time yet swimming with the kids. They have a water slide at the pool and Papa took the boys down a few times and before I knew it both boys were going down completely by themselves!! Way to go boys!! They both had life jackets on which was good because the water is quite over both their heads. Papa would go first with E and wait for the boys at the bottom. Boy did I ever wish I had my camera. E and Papa have the same grin and it's so great to see them having so much fun. L would come SHOOTING down next BEAMING and after he bobbed up Papa would give him a little push to the right side of the pool. We found out that L can swim but only on his back doing a back stroke... it's very hard to do at the bottom the water slide. Then J would come FLYING down and go completely under water before coming up and dogie paddling to the edge of the pool. They were both so excited!! The lifeguard even told J "And you didn't want to go by yourself!!" because I guess Papa had to talk pretty hard to get him to try it. As soon as J did it so did L. Then I'd take R down which she loved!! I don't think she'd ever gone before (they all had life jackets on) and she loved it. She didn't stiffen up once. The 3rd time she giggled and yelled at the bottom. Other times we've gone Papa and I take turns taking one child at a time down the slide while the other adult watches the other three. The pool will not allow more then one child at a time with a adult down the slide even though Papa did it several times and it was great. This way we can all go and it's a LOT more fun. Then E, R and I headed to the kiddie pool to watch the boys. Papa took J and L to the DIVING board. While we were swimming with A&M and kids awhile ago L got a chance to jump off a diving board into my arms. It was really shallow water and he loved it. J did not. At the pool Papa jumped off first and then both the boys jumped off the board into the water in front of him. It helped that there was a little boy smaller then L that was also jumping off to his Papa. L LOVED this and just grinned like crazy. J not so much. I told J he had to try it three times and if he still didn't like it he could stop. He didn't like it and quite. L I think could have kept going except there was a boat in the kiddie pool he really wanted to play with. The third time they jumped off L got up on the board before Papa could so Papa just told him to jump. L walked out to the edge. Looks down. Bounces. Stops. Looks at Papa. Papa leans over to talk to him. L shakes his head. Papa laughed and jumped in the water. Then and only then would L jump off. So much trust!!

Day 3!!

Well day 3 saw us leaving our B&B and heading North again in the rental car. We had to be in Port Hardy by 1 ish and we made it. Barely. The drive was about 4 hours and it rained almost the whole time. On and off. We stopped at one town to buy more batteries for the camera and spent almost a hour looking for a fuel station and buying batteries. The town was amazingly short on fuel stations. Port Hardy was worse. They only had 1 that we could find. Oh and the price of fuel jumped 12 cents between the 2 towns. (about 2 hours apart!!) There was quite a bit of traffic on the road mostly truckers and RVs pulling boats. Papa passed LOTS of them and managed to get out in front and then it was clear sailing all the way to Port Hardy. When we got to Port Hardy we checked into our hotel (honeymoon suite!!) and topped off the car before bringing it back. The car rental guy was the friendliest guy we meet on our entire trip. He chatted about everything. Telling us a lot about Port Hardy and what to do and where to eat. He suggested we take a trail down to the river and watch the bears come out to eat the salmon that were getting ready to go up river. Papa and I thought about it for a bit but ultimately decided NOT to. In a car... yes. On foot 20 minutes walk from the nearest town?? No thanks. We've seen lots of bears and didn't feel like being prey. Though it would have been fun in a car. Instead we found a local diner and had lunch and walked along the few streets that had little stores on them. But it really was a foul dock area. Smelly and growing and gross and we didn't spend too much time there. Of all the docks we saw this was the worst. The people were not super friendly and there was very little to do. Thankfully we only had the afternoon and evening to spend there. So we headed back to the hotel and watched the wharf from the balcony and took pictures of the boats where we didn't have to smell gross rotting fish. On the other side of the bay from us was a cannery and a log yard. The cannery had fishing boats unloading (though we couldn't see much.) but the log yard was COOL. They had these little tough boats that blew BLACK smoke (which is how we noticed them.. you could barely see them in the logs) and they worked as skidders and moved the logs here and there. Then a self loader loaded his truck with these logs that the skidder boats brought him. It was neat to watch them move the logs around in the water. The salmon were congregating in the harbor and doing a lot of jumping. We could hear them every few seconds..Plop. Plop. It was cool. Even when it got dark we could still hear them. They will go up the rivers soon. The room had a big tub and we had a nice soak to get the smell off us. Watched TV for a bit (They had a VCR but no place to rent movies?? Weird town.) and went to bed early so we could be ready for our Ferry shuttle at 5 am!!! The room at the hotel.

A salmon jumping.

The little skidder boats.

A Port Hardy sign.

The wooden carrot. If you can, read the sign. Kinda neat.

A huge sail boat that came into Port Hardy while we were there. The man working on the boat below thought that the sailboats mast was at least 110 feet tall!!

A character boat in dry dock.

On the road to Port Hardy.

At Port Hardy... See the guy running to get into his picture!

A rain speckled view of a mountain on the way to Port Hardy.

We saw this view a lot during the 1st few hours of our drive.

Some cute signs at our B&B.

Our B&B.